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Overview

In 1922, the Chicago Tribune sponsored an international competition to design its new corporate headquarters. Both a serious design contest and a brilliant publicity stunt, the competition received worldwide attention for the hundreds of submissions—from the sublime to the ridiculous—it garnered.

In this lavishly illustrated book, Katherine Solomonson tells the fascinating story of the competition, the diverse architectural designs it attracted, and its lasting impact. She shows how the Tribune used the competition to position itself as a civic institution whose new headquarters would serve as a defining public monument for Chicago. For architects, planners, and others, the competition sparked influential debates over the design and social functions of skyscrapers. It also played a crucial role in the development of advertising, consumer culture, and a new national identity in the turbulent years after World War I.

Editorial Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle
- Kenneth Baker

"Solomonson's history of the competition to design one of America's most famous buildings sets a fine example of how to portray ambitions—artistic and other kinds—against the social background of their times. Scores of illustrations show the dizzying variety of designs that contended against John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood's soaring finalist. Solomonson shows that far more than money, prestige and recognition rode on the competition: the '20s saw the birth of the idea of architecture as corporate branding. At stake was the image that Chicago and implicitly America projected to the larger world."

Chicago Tribune
- Deborah Fausch

"A fascinating social and material history. . . . Offers an exemplary model for anyone seeking to understand what buildings mean to people."

Art Bulletin
- Michael J. Lewis

"[A] brisk and thorough analysis of the world's most famous architectural competition."

American Studies International
- Richard Longstreth

“What distinguishes Solomonson’s endeavor is the range of broader issues that are integrated with architectural ones immediately at hand. Matters of Americanization and community, or city planning and urban design, of corporate symbolism and artistic expression, of historicity and modernity, and of differing cultural perspectives among countries are among the numerous areas examined. . . . The range of material presented in a rigorous and engaging narrative should render the book of benefit to many scholars concerned with American culture as well as with the built environment. Solomonson has produced an exemplary case study that is likely to enjoy longstanding appreciation."

San Francisco Chronicle

"Solomonson''s history of the competition to design one of America''s most famous buildings sets a fine example of how to portray ambitions-artistic and other kinds-against the social background of their times. Scores of illustrations show the dizzying variety of designs that contended against John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood''s soaring finalist. Solomonson shows that far more than money, prestige and recognition rode on the competition: the ''20s saw the birth of the idea of architecture as corporate branding. At stake was the image that Chicago and implicitly America projected to the larger world."-Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle

— Kenneth Baker

Times Literary Supplement

"Solomonson understands the issues and writes engagingly not only about the competition itself, but about the architectural and commercial cultures—both European and American—that formed its backdrop."

Chicago Tribune

"A fascinating social and material history. . . . Offers an exemplary model for anyone seeking to understand what buildings mean to people."

— Deborah Fausch

Architectural Science Review

"[Solomson tells] the fascinating story of this competition, the diverse designs it attracted, and its lasting impact. . . . This is the most detailed account of its history published so far."

Art Bulletin

"[A] brisk and thorough analysis of the world''s most famous architectural competition."--Michael J. Lewis, Art Bulletin

— Michael J. Lewis

American Studies International

"What distinguishes Solomonson's endeavor is the range of broader issues that are integrated with architectural ones immediately at hand. Matters of Americanization and community, or city planning and urban design, of corporate symbolism and artistic expression, of historicity and modernity, and of differing cultural perspectives among countries are among the numerous areas examined. . . . The range of material presented in a rigorous and engaging narrative should render the book of benefit to many scholars concerned with American culture as well as with the built environment. Solomonson has produced an exemplary case study that is likely to enjoy longstanding appreciation."

— Richard Longstreth

Times Literary Supplement

"Solomonson understands the issues and writes engagingly not only about the competition itself, but about the architectural and commercial cultures-both European and American-that formed its backdrop."-Times Literary Supplement

Chicago Tribune

In Solomonson's careful and many-sided account, Tribune Tower becomes a pole around which the whole pattern of a society turns. Building up from details, she draws together a fascinating social and material history....The book represents a landmark effort to connect architectural discourse to the larger culture of which it is a part....this fine social history offers an exemplary model for anyone seeking to understand what buildings mean to people.

Library Journal

The Tribune Company's 1922 competition to design the "world's most beautiful office building" as its headquarters captured the interest of an international audience of architects, business leaders, and the public at large. Solomonson (Univ. of Minnesota) argues persuasively that the competition, now often relegated to the footnotes of architectural history, was a vortex around which swirled the major currents of debate on skyscraper design, city planning, and the role of business in an industrial/capitalist society. Based on her doctoral dissertation, this thoroughly documented study inspects Hood and Howells's winning entry, runner-up Eero Saarinen's ultimately more influential design, and a host of other proposals, from historicist to avant-garde. A brief and unsatisfactory final chapter tentatively raises the issue of the competition's enduring influence. Architect Stanley Tigerman reenacted the competition in his idiosyncratic Chicago Tribune Tower Competition and Late Entries (1980. o.p.); Solomonson, however, offers the first well-rounded examination of this important episode in the development of the urban skyline. Her fine book is recommended for academic libraries. David Solt sz, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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